Stories From The War
by MasterAcer
Summary: You hear many stories about the great heroes of the Reaper War - Commander Shepard, Liara T'Soni, Justicar Samara and many others. But what about the people? The simple people, nobodies with their own thoughts, feeling and experiences from the war. This are some of the moments that they chose to share with us. Each chapter is a separate story from a different person.
1. The Unexpected

Sure, there were many moments of war that really stood out for me... Most of them just incredibly close calls. But if you are gonna talk about those thought provoking, hope-giving moments, then I can't help but think of this one mission on that far away colony, god, I can't even remember the name now... but that's unimportant.

Anyways, I was in command my squad. Us and two others were tasked with providing security for the evacuation shuttles for the civis. You see: the reapers were already crawling around most of the planet so they had civilians in small pockets, hidden away until extraction. We were at some corps' storage hangar. Large place several warehouses and a shuttle hangar.

Our squads were spread out to protect the area. Mine was on the south side. Other two - north and east. What about the west you ask? Well that's where the shuttle bay exit was, right on top of this giant cliff. Long fall that one would be. Perfect for shuttle landing. And there weren't many of those either: just one for each squad and 5 for the civilians, we were supposed to take some with us if there wasn't enough room.

So, they load up the first shuttle. All nice and neat, packed full of some elderly folks and a few kids. The shuttle takes off but as soon as it leaves the hangar - 'BOOM!' Gets shot down and tumbles down into the pit. That's when they hit the north sector. Wiped out nearly all of the squad. So, I rally my marines back to the hangar. We arrive link up with what's left of the north and the east - those guys tried to take out the surface-air turrent those reaper troops set up on their side. Lost half the squad trying. One good thing about the whole situation - they can't get the shuttles while they are still in the hangar. Lucky us I guess.

I see this all going to shit and then this young corporal, from the east squad, Tiko, runs up to me and asks for orders! Turns out I was the highest-ranking officer left for all three squads! Must admit: got lost for a bit there... but got back into it pretty quickly. We had a bit of time while the reapers were covering the ground between us and them, so I get some guys to load up the rest of cives on the shuttles - ready to go whenever. Rest of them, I got to set up some improvised defences, bit further in front of the hangar - couldn't let them too close.

Right as we are about to be done that's when the husks and the cannibals start to pour in! At least we cleared up the ground in front of us making those defences, it was like some shooting range. No real cover for them. But they had numbers. We radio for support but all they say is the usual 'no one in your immediate vicinity', 'take out the gun or try to fly the shuttles out through a different route'. So, I reckon - what the hell! We aren't reaching that AA any time soon but, sure, we could use the cliffs for cover! So, we send off another shuttle. It goes low but eventually the cliff ends, you'd think it would be far away enough to be out of range... but 'BOOM!' - it goes down too!

At that moment, I realise - we are pinned! No way out, land or air! So, we try to radio again, I've got civilians dying right on my hands, goddamn it! No answer. Just static. We keep trying for about another 20 minutes. The uglies don't let up, keep piling on! North squad is wiped out; East is just one person, corporal Tiko; And mine is down by half. That's six guns in total, including me! While we still have 3 shuttles full of civilians, kids and women, behind us.

Then, the radio breaks the static and I hear what, I think, anyone in this war heard too little of: "You've got allied assistance incoming! Hang tight!". 'Bout a minute passes, husks crawling at us from all direction, when I see something in the sky. But it's not an alliance shuttle, or a merc shuttle or any other alien shuttle, it's a goddamn Geth dropship! It freezes right on top of our position. I am thinking - if the Geth are with the reapers, then we are totally screwed! Next thing I know: about ten Geth and a friggin' Geth armature land in front of us. Then this large red Geth Prime lands right behind our barricade. We all turn to face it. It unfolds but I hold my fire: it's unfolding in some weird position - it's hands are raised. Tiko, high on adrenaline, I guess, lets out a three-shooter at it - bounces right off the shield! It stands up and proclaims in it's deep Geth-prime-machine voice:

"Allied assistance has arrived,"

Meanwhile it's 'comrades' over the barricade start blasting the reapers back to hell!

Ten minutes later, the Geth are advancing onto that turrent. Five more and we see a giant fucki.. ahem! Excuse my language, my feelings get the better of me when I think back to those days. Anyways, where was I? Oh right! We see a giant fireball in the place of turrent, behind some warehouse building due east. They sure made short work of those cannibals but they did loose a few troops too.

I think I t's this kind of moments that really won the war for us, the little glimpses of hope and tiny victories. Maybe meaningless in strategic sense but sure as hell inspiring ones at that. Who'd think we fight alongside Geth!

Just for closure: got the civilian shuttles out of there immediately, the armature was picked up by the dropship and the rest helped us fly the north squad's shuttle back to base. The prime flew with us though. Me being the curious brainy type I was back then, I ask what are they gonna do with the Geth bodies, they took all of their dead with them. The Prime turns that red flashlight-camera thingy to me and says:

"We are going to archive the memory core and salvage the rest,"

"What do you mean archive?"

"That is the new Geth equivalent of organics' graveyard,"

"Graveyard? Aren't you all just a bunch of software that never dies?"

"Not anymore, we are each a fully sentient AIs now,"

Still don't know how Commander Shepard managed to pull this off but one thing is for sure, I, Alliance marines and the civilians that were with me there that day, are sure glad that they managed it!


	2. A Curious Case Part 1

It was an early afternoon on the first day of Illium winter. The heat outside has died down to 30 degrees Celsius and I was eagerly looking forward to my daily post-work walk. It's always unbearably hot on Illium outside, but in the carefully controlled micro-environment of my office it is not at all noticeable. A good motivator to work more hours per day. I have just finished with another patient - a salarian suffering from kleptomania due to a certain childhood trauma, I cannot share the details: doctor-patient confidentiality is extremely important in psychological therapy. But it did interfere with his work as a salesman of red sand and expensive electronics components, to an alarming degree.

"Doctor, your last patient for today has arrived," Shirala informed me over the intercom.

"Capitan Kyle? Let him in," I pull up the file he filled in over extranet on to my Omni-tool and proceed toward the door. My Asari intern-assistant Shirala opens the door, letting him in, before him and we shake hands exchanging greeting:

"Alfred Kyle, ex-Alliance intelligence," he extends his hand.

"Doctor Leonidas Paraklamenos, nice to meet you!" I shake his hand feeling the strong military grip.

"That's a very weird door you have here," he looks back over his shoulder.

"Yes, yes indeed." I smile, "it's a wooden door, Oak as a matter of fact. As you can see my office lacks a lot modern electronic equipment. I find it creates a more relaxing atmosphere for my patients," I gesture my hand around the office, pointing out 21st century style leather armchair and sofa, glass coffee desk, heavy wooden office desk and a bookshelf full of hardcover paper books. He follows my hand with awe. A reaction I am aiming at whenever I meet my patients for the first time here. I offer him a seat on one of the armchairs and we begin our first session:

"Before we begin I think you should know, you have nothing to worry about in terms of confidentiality. Doctor-patient confidentiality is even more important here on Illium - you will not believe what kind of people I have as my patients sometimes!" I go for a little ice-breaker, managing to pull a little smile out of him. "I read what you submitted over the extranet. Can I ask you a few general questions to make sure I understood everything correctly?"

"Of coarse, go ahead,"

"So, Captain , honorable discharge after 25 years of service. Alliance intelligence, I imagine your latest position would be a managerial role? Is that correct?"

"Yes I retired a few years ago. My last post was a desk job in the headquarters,"

"And before that you were a field agent?" I inquire.

"Not exactly, I was sort of the intelligence 'clean up crew'. My job was to extract all useful info from taken enemy documents and files. Usually on sight, after the fight,"

"I see," I covertly switched on a behavior monitoring software, every therapist's best friend. "You indicated that you wanted to talk about some event that happened 'quite a while back'" I read off the file.

"Yes I want to... need to, talk about one of my missions from the war..."

"From the war?" I raised an eye brow, "That was over 20 years ago! What made you come here only now?"

"Nothing really, I always wanted to but I never could..." his eyes drifted away towards the bookshelves.

"Never could bring yourself to it?" I dragged him out of his daydream.

"No, I simply couldn't. It was classified until yesterday,"

"Really? I haven't heard yet. Usually when Alliance declassifies something from the war, it makes headlines just about anywhere," I flashed a look at the behavior analyzer, it showed no signs of lying or concealment of any sort. Only slight nervousness associated with traumatic memories. Now my interest was genuinely hooked.

"They tried to keep low profile. Even now it could cause some minor public disturbance," he muttered.

"Well, how about you walk me through exactly what happened then?" I pulled up the note taker.

"Well, it was a few months after the start of the war. I was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant and transferred over to the intelligence right before the attack on Earth," his eyes drifted off once again, no doubt remembering the days of his youth.

"Please continue," I prompted.

"Oh! Hm! Yes. As one of the lowest officer ranks my job was working in a squad with other such officers under a command of a Staff Lieutenant or a Lieutenant Commander. I was assigned Cerberus specialization. I would be grouped in a squad with whoever else was available and flown over to the whatever Cerberus base, ship or outpost was taken over or blown up to try and extract any and all information on their activities and supposed goals,"

"You said you were 'assigned a specialization', did you have any choice in the matter?" I interrupted.

"You have to understand, the situation was desperate. Some minor liberties had to be given up for the better cause," he replied. "Yes, I see..." I replied, jotting down some notes.

"So something happened on one of those mission? Why don't you tell me about it?"

"Alright, so..." he looked away gathering his thoughts, "We were deployed to this facility after Commander Shepard cleaned it out. Maybe you heard of it: Sanctuary?" he looked at me.

"Sanctuary?" I tried to remember, "You mean that Alliance refugee camp which was occupied by Cerberus and later liberated by Commander Shepard?" I looked back at him.

"That is just what they told the public. In reality it was a Cerberus ran facility all along. They were pretending to be Alliance, even had the uniforms and coloured shuttles, to lure in desperate refugees. Thankfully, Commander Shepard shut it down before it too long,"

"Very interesting... so what happened to you there?"

He looked away and continued: "We were the first on the ground, besides the team that were sent to secure the place. We went in through the front entrance. I was assigned to hack and retrieve data from the mainframe of the facilities supercomputer. Of coarse all the import data was already scrubbed or in process. I managed to upload a virus that prevented further deletion. I was able to save some shipping and inventory manifests, inflow chart and predictions graphs as well as lab notes and some copies of messages sent from the facility." He stopped and looked at me, tapping away at the Omani-tools holographic display.

"Oh! Don't stop on my account. Please continue," I urged him whiteout stopping, "just making some important notes..."

"I opened the files up one by one. The facility was large but you would not get the true size of the operation until you saw the numbers: they had 10,000 Alliance uniforms for their stuff and guards to wear, and that's just for those that would be seen by the refugees. But besides that there was absolutely nothing else in any other outstanding amounts. They had no large stockpiles of food and water - they weren't; planning to keep the refugees there; they had no extra Cerberus uniforms or guns - there weren't planning on recruiting them; in fact the documents indicated that the whole facility was designed to work with a set amount of people for about 10 years even with no outside contact! Meanwhile the reports indicated that nearly a million refugees, women and children, have entered the facility and the predictions all stated that the rate of inflow would only increase with time!" The behaviour analyser started picking up disturbances and spikes in agitation and anger.

"So what were they doing there?" I tried to keep the conversation going.

"I also asked myself that question... and that's when I opened the research notes... I am no biologist and at first I thought that it's coded or something but then I played the attached vids... They were transforming refugees into reaper husks and trying to control them! Yes all the refugees, women and children included!" His fist smacked the cupboard on his left, as my jaw dropped wide open. The old soldier, already slightly red faced from rage and anger, turned completely red and jumped to his feet, and walked towards the door rubbing the underside of his fist.

"S-sorry about that... I... I have to go?" he muttered. I just sat there. The news hit me hard.

"Same time tomorrow?" I finally managed a few words as he slammed his head into the oak door expecting it to open as a normal automatic.

"Yeah, yeah..." he pulled on the handle, now rubbing his face, and disappeared into the hallway.

"Doctor...? Doctor Paraklamenos?" Shirala's voiced called me ver the intercom.

"Yes?"

"What happened in there? I heard a loud sound and now is leaving. He hasn't payed. Do you want me to stasis him?"

"No it's alright, hold your biotics. Just put him down for the same time tomorrow," I said walking over to the window. I reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of expensive Cognac. I kept it for special occasions.

"But you have an appointment with the turia-"

"Cancel it!" I took a sip, not bothering with the glasses. And to think: I had friends who went to Sanctuary; even I was pondering the idea for a time, even saved up for a shuttle ride!

It was the first time I ever missed my post-work walk.


End file.
